As various consumer electronic devices are switched from old to new and become more and more popular, the consumer pay more and more attention to multimedia function of the consumer electronic device. Currently, most consumer electronic devices are provided with audio connectors, and the consumer can plug an audio line plug (abbreviated as audio plug in following paragraph) of a broadcasting device such as earphones, loudspeaker, etc., into the consumer electronic device, so that audio data outputted from the consumer electronic device can be broadcasted by the above-mentioned broadcasting device.
Generally speaking, a structure of the audio plug is in a slightly cylindrical shape, and the audio plug is provided with a plurality of audio electrodes which respectively transmit different signals (such as a left channel signal, a right channel signal, a microphone signal, a switch signal, etc.). When the consumer inserts the audio plug into a plug slot of the audio connector, the audio electrodes on the audio plug must be precisely and electrically connected with a plurality of signal terminals of the audio connector for transmitting signals correctly, whereby the consumer electronic device can transmit the audio signal to the broadcasting device via the audio plug and the audio line in sequence and play the audio data by the broadcasting device.
However, as the consumer uses the electronic device more frequently, condition that the electronic device is splashed by liquid or fallen into water is increased correspondingly. When the aforesaid condition occurs, it is inevitable that the electronic device may be penetrated by the liquid even though the electronic device is removed or picked up immediately. If the audio connector without waterproof design is penetrated by the liquid, the liquid may penetrates the electronic device via the plug slot and the electronic device may be damaged due to the circuit board being short circuit or damp.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, some companies provide a traditional waterproof audio connector. Please refer to FIG. 1. The traditional audio connector 1 includes a plurality of signal terminals 11, an isolation main body 13, and a side cover 15. The isolation main body 13 is provided with a plurality of terminal slots 131 disposed at a long side surface thereof, to position the signal terminals 11. The openings of the terminal slots 131 are vertically extended toward an external wall surface of the isolation main body 13, so as to form terminal slot protection walls 133 flushing with each other. An outline of the side cover 15 corresponds to an inner outline of the terminal slot protection walls 133 of the isolation main body 13, and the side cover 15 is provided with a plurality of through structures 151 therethrough. When the openings of the terminal slots 131 are shielded by the side cover 15 at the same time, the soldering parts 111 of the signal terminals 11 can be exposed out of the isolation main body 13 via the through structures 151. The position of the upper surface of the side cover 15 is still lower than a top position of the terminal slot protection wall 133, so the recessed area formed between the side cover 15 and the terminal slot protection wall 133 can be defined as a waterproof glue material accommodating groove, and a waterproof glue material is filled into the accommodating groove to fill all possible gaps fully to achieve the purpose of waterproof.
However, as shown in FIG. 1 clearly, the structure of the traditional audio connector 1 is very complicated and not very friendly for manufacturing assembly. Because the signal terminals 11 separately transmit different audio signals (such as left channel signal, right channel signal, microphone signal, etc.), positions and structures of the signal terminals 11 are different from each other in order to correctly connect two ends of the signal terminals 11 with the circuit board and the audio plug inside the electronic device electrically, but such design increases the difficulty in assembly efficiently. In addition, in other type of the audio connector, in order to enable the signal terminals to be precisely soldered to the corresponding circuit contact point, the signal terminals are extended and crisscrossed with each other, and such design affects the manufacturing cost and yield rate of the audio connector. It means that the structure of the signal terminals must be adjusted for forming “waterproof scheme” of the traditional audio connector, and the problems of complicated structure and difficult assembly are occurred correspondingly.
To sum up, in the design of traditional waterproof audio connector, a waterproof structure is disposed between the signal terminals and the isolation base, but the waterproof structure has complicated design and causes difficult assembly, and may further lead to the problem of a bad waterproof effect. Therefore, what is need is to design an audio connector having a simple waterproof structure, to enable the waterproof audio connector to be assembled more easily and improve the waterproof effect.